• As many as 67 offences included in schedule
• Up to Rs500,000 fine and/or three-year extendable jail term suggested for repeat offenders

KARACHI: Amid a boycott of proceedings by the opposition parties, the Sindh Assembly on Monday passed the Sindh Local Government (Third Amendment) Bill, 2023 empowering inspectors of local councils to take cognizance of as many as 67 offences under the Act and impose fine up to Rs50,000 on violators.

The offences included non-payment of local government taxes and levies.

The amended law also enables local councils to file a case in a court of law against those repeatedly committing an offence, and seek a penalty not exceeding Rs500,000 and/or an imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years.

In the schedules of the SLGA-2023, certain offences are included to maintain civic order and protect civic infrastructure.

The schedules of offences under the SLGA included: Tampering with any road, drain, pavement, main pipeline, meter or any apparatus or appliance for water supply; evasion of payment of tax or impost lawfully levied by a local government; establishing any parking stand on any property or on any open space and public park or land vested in or managed, maintained by a local government on or under a street, road, graveyard or a drain without sanction of the relevant local government; begging importunately for alms; discharging any dangerous chemical, inflammable, hazardous or offensive articles in any drain or sewer, public water course or public land vested in or managed by local government; and failure of industrial or commercial concerns to provide adequate any safe disposal of affluent or prevention of their mixing up with the water supply or sewerage system.

Besides, the amended law also authorises the local government inspector to take action against a local government employee or a contractor or his staff for overcharging or illegally charging any tax, fee or fine without the authority of a local government.

Boycott by the opposition

Opposition members belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Grand Democratic Allliance, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan boycotted the proceedings as the provincial government hurriedly introduced and passed six bills, including ‘The Sindh Local Government (Third Amendment) Bill, 2023’ for, what the government termed, “empowering local bodies across the province”.

The Hyderabad Water and Sewerage Corporation Bill, 2023; The Mirpurkhas Water and Sewerage Corporation Bill, 2023; The Shaheed Benazirabad (Nawabshah) Water and Sewerage Corporation Bill, 2023; The Larkana Water and Sewerage Corporation Bill, 2023; The Sukkur Water and Sewerage Corporation Bill, 2023; and The Sindh Local Government (Third Amendment) Bill, 2023 were introduced and passed simultaneously.

As the first bill was taken up, opposition lawmakers began complaining for not having been supplied copies of the bills prior to the sitting.

MQM-P lawmaker Muhammad Hussain Khan said that they were not against the bills for establishing water and sewerage corporations but the way the legislation was being done was ‘inappropriate’. “It’s a blind legislation with no consultation with the opposition,” he deplored, and jibed that the opposition members should have been blind-folded during the quick presentation and adoption of bills.

He said that the members were not provided copies of the bills prior to the sitting which, he said, was against the rules and procedures.

The MQM-P lawmakers then staged a token walkout followed by lone MMA member Syed Abdul Rashid, TLP’s Mufti Qasim Fakhri and GDA members.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla said that he was amazed with the walkout as the bills were aimed at empowering local bodies. “The Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh government is devolving powers at council level as per its promise,” he added.

‘Opposition’s over 100 bills not taken up’

Later, Leader of the Opposition in the house Rana Ansar said that on the one hand the government was ‘hastily’ passing many bills and, on the other, over 100 private bills submitted by opposition members were not being tabled.

She said that MQM-P’s Muhammad Hussain Khan, GDA’s Arif Mustafa Jatoi and MMA’s Syed Abdul Rasheed had submitted many private bills but they were not being tabled.

“Even if a few of our bills are incorporated in the agenda on private members’ day, they are not taken up,” the opposition leader said before the MQM-P, MMA and TLP boycotted the proceedings.

Question Hour

Not a single question out of five placed on the agenda was taken up due to the absence of the members who had submitted them to the assembly secretariat for replies from the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities.

GDA’s Nusrat Sehar Abbasi and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Parliamentary Leader Khurram Sher Zaman, who had submitted their written questions, did not turn up.

The PTI members have not been attending the assembly proceedings since the May 9 violent incidents that took place after PTI Chairman Imran Khan was first arrested.

Later, Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani adjourned the session till 10am on Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2023